Columns

From the category archives: Opinions

DR. GERRY TURCOTTE

In 2004 I published a multi-genre book entitled Border Crossings: Words and Images that featured poems, essays, short stories and images. Virtually all of the photographs were "old school" – that is, analog not digital. The book was a combination of writings that I had written for performance, including a live dramatic reading with a jazz ensemble at the famed Sydney Opera House, and a photographic installation at the Wollongong City Art Gallery, also in Australia.

DR. GERRY TURCOTTE

As a child I was always thrown when the priest announced that we were in Ordinary Time. Sometimes it seemed self-evident; but often it was anything but ordinary. My uncle bagged a moose; someone won the lottery; another had triplets. And in the papers . . . goodness me, nothing seemed ordinary. So why was the priest proclaiming that we were in the fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time? What, I always wondered, was extraordinary time? Maybe I should come back later when the cool things were happening.

DR. GERRY TURCOTTE

I was struck by the following quote that is often repeated in the context of New Year's resolutions: "Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties." It's an inspirational statement, though you might be forgiven for thinking that such messages sometimes fall flat when you are really struggling. Many complain that New Year's Day is an equally provisional symbol of a fresh start . . . as though all the pain or joy, the failures or successes of the past year suddenly vanish just because we reset the clock.

DR. GERRY TURCOTTE

For the last three years I have faced insistent questioning from my 11-year-old daughter Sophie about whether there is a Santa. Her sense of hopeful wonder has been struggling mightily against the majority of her classmates and their clear certainty about the ruse. As we talked this through, I told her about a wonderful story I have always loved. It was about a similar child who, upon hearing from classmates that Santa was fictional, fled to his matter-of-fact grandmother for the truth. His grandmother never sugar-coated anything, and he secretly feared she would support his classmates. Instead, she insisted that Santa did exist and took little David to a general store to prove it.

DR. GERRY TURCOTTE

A recent CBC segment featured a radio host who explained that she had received death threats following an unexpectedly controversial news story. The letter, she said, was filled with spelling errors and it was signed: the Angle of Death! Which, let's be honest, is not quite as scary as an Angel of Death, except perhaps for Grade 6 students studying geometry. The anecdote reminded me of a Michel de Montaigne quote: "The greater part of the world's troubles are due to questions of grammar." This in turn invoked a funny line by Jennifer Crusie: "His sentences didn't seem to have any verbs, which was par for a politician. All nouns, no action."

DR. GERRY TURCOTTE

Few people would deny the importance of education. This week I had the pleasure of welcoming a record number of new students to the St. Mary's orientation. It was a thrill both to watch the excited faces in the crowd and to observe the educational styles of the many speakers who came forward to greet our students: from campus ministry to student advisor to the president of the student legislative council. What struck me most about our event was the range of rhetorical techniques the speakers used to communicate with the audience.

DR. GERRY TURCOTTE

Of all the columns I have written over the years, a few seem to have had special resonance, though perhaps none more so that my column about typographical errors.Readers may remember that I began by admitting my own most embarrassing moment when I wrote to my then faculty with the salutation, "Good morning Dead Colleagues," instead of "Dear Colleagues.".

DR. GERRY TURCOTTE

Like many of my fellow presidents I had the honour recently of speaking at our university's convocation. As so often happens, I spent a fair amount of time thinking about the structure of the event, what my speech would focus on and how we would ensure that our students had a perfect day. Once the event was over, though, I was struck (as I always am) by the sense of shared joy that permeated the reception.

DR. GERRY TURCOTTE

I never got to speak to my father as he lay dying. Quite simply, he was the most important figure in my life, a humble, funny and deeply honourable individual, a unique person who could discipline without anger, inspire without fanfare, and who kept the ship afloat no matter how bad the seas. Despite a desperately poor upbringing and a difficult life, he managed to steer his family through good and bad times and to ensure that we had all the necessities of life.

DR. GERRY TURCOTTE

In Ernest Hemingway's most popular posthumous publication, A Moveable Feast (1964), the American writer stated that: "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast." For Hemingway, the phrase captured the spontaneity, the diversity and the magic of the 1920s Left Bank where the Picassos rubbed shoulders with the Chagalls and the Joyces, and creativity in its many magical forms flourished.